Rule 5 Draft

In today's Baseball Prospectus Bryan Smith wrote an article about players who played in the AFL who were - or were not - protected from the Rule 5 Draft by their parent club.  I realize to some, like Larry, I am beating a dead horse but this is what he stated concerning Fernando Hernandez:

"Another popular reliever is White Sox reliever Fernando Hernandez, who pitched in 60 games at Double-A in 2007, striking out 84 batters in 85 1/3 innings. Hernandez doesn't have spectacular stuff, but he has substantial experience in simply retiring hitters, and has the endurance to pitch in middle relief. For an organization like the White Sox that struggled with their relievers in 2007, leaving Hernandez available to baseball's other 29 teams is a pretty silly mistake."

I am in total agreement.  Some team will spend $50,000 to take a chance on him.

The White Sox can also take players in the Rule 5 Draft and one pitcher I hope they consider is Stu Pomeranz who was left exposed by the Cardinals. Smith wrote of him:

"Pomeranz has a pitcher's body and allowed just one earned run in 14 innings in Mesa, but his injury-driven relative inexperience leaves him without the resume of other draft-eligible pitchers."

Pomeranz is 6'7", 220 lbs.  He was selected by the Cardinals out of Houston H.S. (Germantown, Tenn.) in the 2nd round (No. 65 overall) of the June 2003 First Year Player Draft.  Reportedly he has good movement on his fastball and excellent command. He's close to Major League-average on his other pitches -- a knuckle curve and a change with some sink which makes his fastball better.  From I what I hear and read he would be worth a $50,000 gamble ...